Jump to content

Is there a song more underrated than Coma ?


SL138

Recommended Posts

Coma is fantastic. I can remmeber as a kid lyign in bed with headphones on at night and just listening to the end over and over and over again. Coma, Locomotive and Don't Damn Me is Slash and Axl on their best, best, best.

Here are some quotes about Coma from GN'R band members:

Izzy, prior to the release: Slash has this song, it's called 'Coma', and it's fuckin' 15 minutes long. And I still don't know it, man. I have to take a special chord chart with me whenever we play it. There's like 50 chords at the end of it and I just can't follow them [The Vox, 1991].

Gilby, on being asked which song gave him the most struggle: Without a doubt, 'Coma.' I still don't know it. It's like this 15- or 20-minute song with no repeats [Trial by fire, Guitar World, November 1992].

Axl: At times l enjoy writing, and other times just hate it because it's definitely having to go back and experience some pain and express how you really feel. Sometimes the writing ends up being cathartic in the long run, but, like, writing "Coma" on "Use Your Illusion I" was so heavy I'd start to write and I'd just pass out. I tried to write that song for a year, and couldn't. l went to write it at the studio and passed out. l woke up two hours later and sat down and wrote the whole end of the song, like, just off the top of my head. It was like, don't even know what's coming out, man, but it's coming. l think one of the best things that I've ever written was maybe the end segment of the song "Coma." It just poured out. I thanked Slash for that, because I used to curse him, going, "Man, that son of a bitch has written this thing and I've got to write to it and don't know what to write." It was so hard; it made me feel like, "l don't know how to write, I should just quit." (Axl laughs) But I finally did write it, and l ended up feeling a lot better about a lot of situations that l expressed In that song [interview Magazine talks to Axl Rose, 1992].

Duff: 'Coma' is monstrous [Friend (1991) The Illusion Of Greatness, RIP - June, 1991].

Slash: I like 'Coma' a lot. It's got a defibrillator in it- you know, the instrument that starts your heart when it's stopped. And there's some EKG beeps too. We were just fucking around, but the song is heavy, and Axl's vocals are gorgeous- I mean really amazing

[Friend (1991) The Illusion Of Greatness, RIP - June, 1991].

Slash: I wrote some really cool shit when I was high. There's a song called Coma, a long song, really heavy, and I wrote that loaded [simmons (1991) Tears Before Bedtime?, Q - July, 1991].

Slash: My next home [in 1989] was a house Izzy and I rented up in the Hollywood Hills, and that lasted for about a month. (...) We had fun while we were there and I also managed to write a lot; I wrote 'Coma' and the two of use wrote 'Locomotive' in that house; there was some creativity going on [bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 252].

Slash: (...) As well as a long, heavy guitar-riff mantra I wrote when living with Izzy that evolved into the song 'Coma.' The song was eight minutes long; it was just a repeating pattern that got increasingly mathematical and involved in its precision as it progressed. Axl loved it but at first it was one song that he couldn't come up with lyrics for. He was very proud of his gift for lyrics, so he was pretty frustrated by it...until one night months later when the words just came to him [bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 299].

Slash: When I wrote "Coma," it was over a pretty short period of time, but it was not a one-day song. I kept playing around with the ideas, and then tying it together. This is another song that was basically arranged when I brought it to the band. I wrote the whole song, amazingly enough, on acoustic. When I play with the band live, and electrically, I turn the volume down, tone it down for that middle section. I was actually looking forward to doing that part when we were in the studio [No Illusions, Guitar - April, 1992].

Duff: We have actually got this song called 'Girth'... Well, it's not going to be called 'Girth' on the album, it'll get changed, but it's such a heavy song we call it 'Girth' for now. It's named after this guy West [Arkeen], who writes with us sometimes. He's a real little fucker, right? but his dick, it's only about this long but it's like this wide, man! So he got the girth, right? So we call this song 'Girth'... [Wall, M. (1991) The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Hyperion].

Izzy: That was a long song, wasn't it? I never did learn that song. What I did is, I had a chord chart onstage for the tour, because there were like 30 changes, and they didn't flow naturally for me. I think that was Slash's song more than anything, because he was more into that heavier, Metallica sort of thing. I think we only played it three times live [RIP, 1992].

Slash: The only other effect that wasn't synthesized [besides gospel singers on 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' and harmonica on 'Bad Obsession'] was the defibrillator at the very beginning of 'Coma'. Yeah, that was real [bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, pp 318].

Source: Appetite for Discussion Song Database: http://gnr-afd.forumotion.com/t100-coma#118

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not really underrated among fans is it? I always see it mentioned as an all time favorite on these boards, and I totally agree on that.

But honestly, apart from the 6-7 hits UYI had, pretty much the rest of the songs are underrated to the common music fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coma is underrated? I think a better observation is Use Your Illusion is underrated. I've listened to Coma at least 1,500 times. UYI in my opinion, is better that AFD. But that's not the argument here. UYI in a whole is underrated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest NewGNRnOldGNR

UYI in my opinion, is better that AFD.

The "Illusions" theoretically are a lot stronger than "Appetite". The latter is more acclaimed however as people would generally rather escape into a paradise through music rather than be reminded of their "shitty", emotional day to day lives (which is essentially what "Illusions" does).

Edited by NewGNRnOldGNR
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coma is underrated? I think a better observation is Use Your Illusion is underrated. I've listened to Coma at least 1,500 times. UYI in my opinion, is better that AFD. But that's not the argument here. UYI in a whole is underrated.

this

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best topic in months.

Coma IS underrated and I'm terribly glad to see so many people enjoy it or put it in their 1st choice for GNR best song.

It's not the GNR song I've listened to the most, but it's my favourite as well, along with Nightrain, CD and TWAT.

If I really had to make a top, Coma would make it 1st place without a doubt. Everything about it is brilliant. I love the "i love you" part, that means and explains so much. It's the meanest and most meaningful song that GNR has ever done to me, the solo after the break is glorious, and the last 2 minutes are absolutely amazing.

It's a damn shame that it's not played live either by Axl or Slash anymore. It's GNR at the top of their peak. Fantastic, and spread the word that it's THE best GNR song. This song will never get overrated even if 6 billions people on the planet like it because the amazingness is so high that it can't disappoint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coma is freakin' enthralling. But there's no way it's underrated amongst big fans, perhaps it is amid casual listeners, but then again, is there any song besides Sweet Child, PC, NR, Don't Cry WTTJ, and any other that was put as a single, not underrated by the latter? :tongue2:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...